


Remember, Do Not Forget

by rocknlobster



Category: Forever (TV)
Genre: Collection: Purimgifts Extras, Gen
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-03-22
Updated: 2016-03-22
Packaged: 2018-05-28 10:02:51
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 596
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/6324754
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/rocknlobster/pseuds/rocknlobster
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Henry muses about the challenges of raising a child in a faith he did not grow up with himself.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Remember, Do Not Forget

**Author's Note:**

  * For [sandyk](https://archiveofourown.org/users/sandyk/gifts).



Learning thousands of years of traditions and rules and holidays was not easy. 

Far be it from Henry to complain, of course. After all, it was hardly brand new for him. He'd been around the block, as his neighbor colloquially put it the other day. After all, if people with a single lifespan could live a full and rich Jewish life, then someone who has lived _several_ lifespans and counting would be able to figure it out, surely.

As a man friendly with outcasts and minorities in many times and places, especially after the onset of his curse, Henry had cultivated friendships with Jews in many of his incarnations over the centuries. He recalled with fondness the community in Curaçao, quite charming; he had spent a few years there. He particularly befriended the organist, an island resident who was not Jewish but quite integral to the music and worship of the community. Their temple, that they called a _Snoa_ , was older than Henry by almost 50 years, and still in use in the 21st century, or so the internet informed him. 

That was something he appreciated whenever he spent any significant amount of time near an old Jewish community; there were not altogether as many opportunities for him to feel young these days as there once had been. Standing in a building built 50 years before he was born, watching someone read from a scroll hundreds of years old before it was brought to that island, these things caused him to breathe deeply of the sea air and reflect that no matter how old he felt, truly in the eyes of the planet he was but a babe. 

Being a silent observer was quite different than raising a child in the faith, however, for many obvious reasons. To do justice to Abraham's upbringing required that Henry and Abigail understand these traditions in a way that neither of them would have otherwise. Lighting candles, saying blessings for seemingly every possible life occurrence (Henry recalled one memorable conversation with a rabbi: "After using the bathroom? Really?"), making sure that Abraham was given every opportunity to live life to its fullest, in as close to a Jewish home as they could make it, such a home as he might have had but for the untimely interference of evil, the darker side of humanity. 

That was also something Henry had seen many times in his life. The repercussions of this evil would differ but the signs of it were always the same. Henry came to appreciate this about Judaism, perhaps more than anything else, that the evils of the world did not go unremarked in Jewish tradition, but neither were they laid at the feet of some supernatural force of evil, implacable and ultimately useless for a single man to strive against. Rather, Henry learned that the ancient Jewish sages taught that it is upon all people, in every year of every age, to blot out the name of evil, but also to remember its nature. Jewish tradition even built this into their annual progression through the calendar year; the Sabbath before the holiday called Purim was a Sabbath of remembrance. 

For Henry, the memory of evil was always close at hand. He understood all too well the interplay of joy and sadness, and that feasts of celebration must always have at their core the memory of what has been, and what may yet come to be again, countered always by acts of kindness, compassion, and love.

a few articles about the synagogue in Curaçao:  
[Wikipedia](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cura%C3%A7ao_synagogue)  
[Jewish Ledger](http://www.jewishledger.com/articles/2004/09/15/news/on_the_cover/news02.txt)  
[Jewish Exponent](http://jewishexponent.com/culture/2015/08/exhibit-uncovers-jewish-caribbean-treasures)

**Author's Note:**

> Hope you enjoy! Apologies for any error of Henry's speech-pattern, or history.


End file.
